Timeline

• March 31, 2027: Submission deadline

Timeline

• July 31, 2026: Submission deadline

Timeline

• October 31, 2026: Full paper submission deadline

This special issue invites submissions exploring the applications, implications, and innovations of Large Language Models (LLMs) in the tourism industry and for enhancing tourist experiences. The rapidly evolving landscape of artificial intelligence presents unprecedented opportunities and challenges for tourism stakeholders, from destination management organizations to hospitality providers to individual travelers.

Potential topics

• Applications of LLMs in tourism management and operations
• LLMs for personalized tourist experiences and recommendations
• Natural language processing applications in tourism marketing
• LLMs for tourism chatbots and customer service
• Language translation and communication in tourism contexts
• LLMs for travel planning and itinerary generation
• Sentiment analysis and tourist feedback analysis using LLMs
• LLMs for tourism research and data analysis

Timeline

• August 31, 2026: Full paper submission deadline

This special issue is jointly established by Annals of Tourism Research and Annals of Tourism Research Empirical Insights.

Timeline

• August 31, 2026: Submission deadline

Timeline

• September 30, 2026: Submission deadline

This special issue focuses on the applications and implications of Large Language Models (LLMs) in the tourism sector. We invite research exploring how LLMs can enhance tourist experiences, improve tourism service delivery, and support both tourism businesses and individual travelers. The issue welcomes empirical studies, theoretical frameworks, case studies, and critical analyses of LLM technologies in tourism contexts.

Potential topics

• Applications of LLMs in tourism industry
• LLMs for personalized tourist recommendations
• Natural language processing for tourism content
• Chatbots and virtual assistants in tourism
• Tourist information retrieval using LLMs
• Language translation for tourism
• Sentiment analysis of tourist reviews
• LLM-based travel planning and itinerary generation
• Multilingual tourism communication
• AI ethics in tourism applications

Timeline

• August 31, 2026: Submission deadline

C. Michael Hall, Massey University

The crisis in the Middle East marked by the Israeli and United States attacks on Iran, Israel attacks on Lebanon and Palestine, and attacks by Iran and their proxies on Israel and Middle East and Gulf states represents the greatest crisis for international tourism since COVID-19. The direct effects of the war on tourism in the Middle East and Gulf states is clearly substantial however it is also having broader effects throughout the global tourism system because of the significance on Gulf aviation hubs for international tourism as well as restrictions in airspace for Asia-Europe travel and shipping in the Straits of Hormuz. Moreover, Iran has directly threatened to expand its retaliatory attacks to include recreational and tourist sites worldwide.

Indirectly, the effects of the Middle East crisis also have enormous broader impacts on the cost of oil and gas, and therefore tourism aviation and transport, as well as on national and regional economies. According to the head of the International Energy Agency, the depth of the problem facing the globe because of the war on Iran is very serious, more so than the 1973 and 1979 oil crises, and more serious than the gas crisis sparked by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. From a tourism perspective, aviation schedules are already being revised considering potential fuel shortages while the cost of petrol has implications for domestic tourist travel. The cost aviation fuel and travel uncertainty has hit the economics of the airline industry leading to concerns over the collapse of carriers. Moreover, in the longer term the crisis has implications for the sustainability of carbon-based transport networks and tourism infrastructure and may lead to further development of renewable energy-based tourism infrastructure or new energy trajectories given the geopolitical risks attached to carbon dependent tourism.

Given the significance of the crisis for international and domestic tourism worldwide and the associated economic, policy, destination and environmental effects, Current Issues in Tourism calls for contributions to a special issue on tourism and the Middle East crisis in international, regional, national, and destination contexts in order to provide the latest research on the crisis' impacts and government, industry, destination, and consumer responses.

Potential topics

• The effects of the Middle East crisis on international and domestic tourist attitudes, behaviour, decision-making, and flows
• The impacts of the Middle East crisis on destinations, attractions and businesses and policy and industry responses
• The Middle East crisis and destination image
• Resilience, adaptation, and vulnerability in tourism considering the Middle East crisis
• The geopolitics of tourism and the Middle East crisis
• The Middle East crisis and the aviation sector
• Energy futures for tourism
• Foreign policy and tourism
• The future of tourism in the Middle East and the Eastern Mediterranean
• Substitute behaviour because of the Middle East crisis and the cost of energy
• Policy learning and the Middle East crisis
• The international and regional architecture of tourism governance and the Middle East crisis

Timeline

• December 31, 2026: Manuscript deadline

Edmund Goh, Les Roches Abu Dhabi Hospitality Academy

Jun Wen, Macau University of Science and Technology

Siamak Seyfi, University of Oulu

C. Michael Hall, Massey University

Xin-Jean Lim, Sun Yat-Sen University

September 2025 marked the 10th anniversary of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a global blueprint for achieving peace, prosperity, and planetary wellbeing. Over the past decade, the hospitality and tourism industries and destination communities have emerged as powerful platforms for advancing and contesting these goals. Hospitality and tourism encompass all 17 SDGs, either directly or indirectly, from economic growth and decent work (SDG 8) to responsible consumption and production (SDG 12), climate action (SDG 13), and partnerships for the goals (SDG 17).

In hospitality and tourism research, SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth) has guided studies on workforce inclusion, ethical employment, and skills development; SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production) has inspired frameworks for food-waste reduction, sustainable procurement, and circular-economy innovation; and SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) has informed investigations into heritage protection, destination resilience, and overtourism management. At the same time, SDG 5 (Gender Equality) and SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities) have underpinned studies on women's empowerment, migrant labour, and social inclusion across tourism enterprises. Research has also expanded around SDG 13 (Climate Action) and SDG 14/15 (Life Below Water and Life on Land), addressing carbon measurement, biodiversity conservation, and regenerative destination practices.

While studies have advocated that tourism and hospitality can positively contribute to the fulfilment of the UN's ambitious 2030 Agenda, there remains a noticeable gap in how the SDGs are explicitly integrated within scholarly research. Many studies have investigated sustainability-related themes without explicitly aligning their objectives, frameworks, or findings to specific SDG targets, often downplaying or omitting the SDG lens altogether. This disconnect limits the sector's ability to evaluate progress, benchmark impact, and influence policymaking.

This Special Issue responds to those calls by encouraging tourism and hospitality researchers to explicitly reconnect their work to the SDG framework, to identify future research pathways, and to assist policymakers in addressing global challenges through evidence-based strategies. In particular, we seek contributions that illuminate the dynamic linkages between key stakeholders such as hosts, tourists, destinations, government, and industry to explore how these interrelationships can generate more sustainable and equitable outcomes.

This Special Issue seeks to critically assess the progress, limitations, and future directions of SDG-related initiatives in hospitality and tourism. We invite empirical, conceptual, and review papers that evaluate how far the sector has come but also envision pathways for a regenerative, inclusive, and just hospitality and tourism future beyond 2030.

Potential topics

• Reflecting on the First Decade (2015–2025) of SDG achievements and gaps
• Critical reviews of how research to date references SDGs and where conceptual or methodological gaps persist
• Evaluating tourism and hospitality's contribution to all 17 SDGs, including SDG 1 (No Poverty) and SDG 2 (Zero Hunger) through community tourism, local sourcing, and food redistribution
• Examining progress toward SDG 3 (Good Health and Wellbeing) through wellness tourism, workplace health initiatives, and traveller safety
• Assessing SDG 4 (Quality Education) via tourism and hospitality curriculum transformation, sustainability literacy, and lifelong learning
• Policy coherence and alignment of tourism strategies with SDG 16 (Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions), focusing on governance, transparency, and ethical practices
• Reviewing the role of SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure) in sustainable destination design, transport systems, and smart tourism
• Integrating SDG 8 (Decent Work), SDG 5 (Gender Equality), and SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities) through inclusive recruitment, fair wages, and leadership opportunities
• Advancing SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production) via food waste management, circular hospitality systems, and sustainable event management
• Strengthening SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) by aligning urban tourism, heritage conservation, and destination capacity management
• Building SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals) through cross-sector collaborations among government, academia, and private enterprises
• Linking SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy) and SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation) to energy-efficient hotel design, water conservation, and waste-water reuse
• Exploring SDG 13 (Climate Action), SDG 14 (Life Below Water), and SDG 15 (Life on Land) through carbon-neutral travel, biodiversity protection, and eco-restoration tourism
• Applying SDG 9 (Innovation and Infrastructure) and SDG 16 (Institutions) in AI-driven sustainability measurement, blockchain transparency, and smart destination governance
• Embedding SDG 3 (Health) and SDG 11 (Communities) in wellness, resilience, and crisis recovery frameworks
• Integrating ethical, cultural, and spiritual perspectives on sustainability to support SDG 4 (Education) and SDG 17 (Partnerships)
• Conceptualising post-SDG paradigms such as regenerative tourism, circular hospitality, etc.
• Examining the intersections of sustainability with digital transformation, big data, and tourism intelligence systems
• Developing cross-SDG frameworks and metrics to capture interlinkages (e.g., SDG 8–12–13 synergies)
• Big data analytics, AI, and social media mining for SDG progress tracking and destination reporting
• Comparative cross-national or longitudinal studies assessing tourism's SDG impact
• Theorising host–guest–destination dynamics as a holistic system contributing to SDG 1–17 interdependence

Timeline

• Invalid DateTime: Selected Manuscripts Published
• May 1, 2026: Abstract (Systematic Review) Submission Deadline
• July 1, 2026: Abstract (Full Paper and Research Note) Submission Deadline
• December 1, 2026: Full Manuscript Submission Deadline
• January 1, 2027: Review Process

Raymond Rastegar, Griffith University

Rami K. Isaac, Bethlehem University

Andrew Mzembe, Breda University of Applied Sciences

Lisa Ruhanen, The University of Queensland

The tourism sector stands at a critical crossroads. Amid accelerating climate crises, deepening socio-economic inequalities, biodiversity loss, enduring structural marginalisation, and regional conflicts, calls for systemic transformation have become increasingly pressing and unavoidable. While initiatives such as green transitions and the push toward net-zero have gained traction, driven by decarbonisation strategies, energy transitions, and technological innovations, these pathways are far from politically neutral. Transitions are not merely technical adjustments to energy systems or consumer behaviour; they are profoundly political processes that shape who benefits, who bears the burdens, and who has a voice or is silenced in the governance of change.

Sustainability transitions demand a critical interrogation of governance mechanisms, institutional lock-ins, market structures, and cultural imaginaries. Yet, approaches to transition within the tourism and hospitality sector often remain entrenched in technocratic and neoliberal logics that sideline questions of equity, power, and historical injustice. These omissions risk perpetuating and even exacerbating the very inequalities that sustainability agendas seek to address. A growing body of tourism and hospitality scholarship reveals that sustainability and justice are frequently treated as separate concerns. This disconnect presents a timely opportunity for scholars to advance integrated theoretical and empirical work that meaningfully connects sustainability transitions with justice-oriented perspectives.

Recent scholarship in tourism and climate policy underscores the growing relevance of Just Transitions, a concept rooted in environmental and labour movements and increasingly institutionalised by global organisations. In this Special Issue, we adopt the broader and more critical framework of Just Sustainability Transition (JST). This approach moves beyond narrow carbon and labour-focused agendas to interrogate fundamental questions: Who transitions? How do transitions unfold? What historical and place-specific factors shape them? For whom are these transitions imagined? And how does tourism contribute to or hinder wider sustainability transitions? These questions, often sidelined in dominant sustainability narratives, lie at the heart of the JST approach. JST foregrounds the reality that sustainability transitions in tourism are neither politically neutral nor uniformly experienced. They are embedded in structural inequalities, shaped by global power asymmetries, and conditioned by uneven capacities for participation, adaptation, and governance.

Despite the continued dominance of growth-oriented paradigms and market-led solutions in tourism which tend to obscure deeper questions of recognition, procedural, distributive justice, and restorative justice, emerging research across climate justice, regenerative tourism, multispecies ethics, and decolonial critique reveals the transformative potential of centring justice in tourism transitions. This Special Issue aims to advance critical debates by providing a platform for theoretical, conceptual, and empirical contributions that interrogate and reimagine transitions in tourism and hospitality through a justice lens. We particularly welcome work that draws on intersectional, decolonial, ecological, feminist, Indigenous, and multispecies justice perspectives to illuminate the tensions, trade-offs, and transformative potentials embedded in the sector's transition pathways. We also encourage submissions that conceptualise JST as a longitudinal and staged process, one that enables the identification and tracking of transitional justice markers across research, policy, and practice. This approach reframes sustainability not merely as a technical or managerial challenge, but as a profoundly normative and political project that demands inclusive, reflexive, and justice-oriented transformation.

Potential topics

• Governance frameworks and institutional innovations for embedding justice in tourism transitions
• Power, agency, and the role of private and public actors in driving (or resisting) transitions
• Just sustainability transition imaginaries and realities across geographies: Global South and Global North perspectives
• Intermediaries, social movements, labour unions and civil society in shaping justice-oriented transitions
• Tourism workers' rights, precarity, and vulnerability in the context of transition
• Climate change adaptation and mitigation through the lens of climate justice
• Multispecies justice and posthuman perspectives in sustainable tourism
• Gender justice and intersectionality in transition governance
• Island and Indigenous tourism economies: toward self-determined transition pathways
• Transition tourism: exploring new business models and regenerative alternatives
• Methodologies for researching justice in sustainability transitions
• Temporality and just transitions

Timeline

• February 20, 2026: Abstract deadline
• September 30, 2026: Manuscript deadline